From the Friars: The Silver Bullet
In the early 90’s I went to a profession Mass of the Missionaries of Charity Sisters in New York. There was a man there with long hair praying in a side pew of the church. It was the famous actor, Martin Sheen. This was memorable but an even more well-known person was also there, St. Theresa of Calcutta. After Mass I lined up with hundreds of others to meet my hero, Mother Theresa. She said “God bless you” to each person and gave them a Miraculous Medal. She distributed thousands of these during her lifetime.
The original name of the Miraculous Medal was the Medal of the Immaculate Conception because of the words printed on it: “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” The design of the medal was revealed to St. Catherine Labouré in 1830 by Our Blessed Mother Herself. It became hugely popular and no doubt hastened the definition of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. We celebrate this Solemnity on December 8.
The Miraculous Medal design was executed by Adrien Vachette based on Saint Catherine Labouré’s visions. Picture by Xhienne – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
The medal’s change of name was due to so many miracles associated with it. One of the most famous was the dramatic conversion of the atheist Alphonse Ratisbonne in 1842. He was from a prominent Jewish family and had a strong hatred for all things Catholic. Somehow a friend convinced him to wear a miraculous medal and shortly after this Our Lady appeared to him at a church in Rome. He later became a Jesuit priest and missionary.
This had a big effect on St. Maximilian Kolbe, who celebrated his first Mass in the chapel where Mary had appeared to Ratisbonne. Kolbe made the miraculous medal a central part of his evangelization efforts, calling it his silver bullet and a first-rate weapon against the enemy of evil. He even gave them to the guards at Auschwitz.
As we honor Our Immaculate Mother this week, would it not be pleasing to her if we all kept a few silver bullets in our pocket to give to those we meet, inviting them to open their hearts to God’s grace, which is represented by the beams of light coming from her hands?
It is a simple but powerful way to build up the Kingdom.
Fr. Peter